Filed to story: The Alphas Contract Novel by Taylor West
She shakes her head, “You are sad.”
“I miss my family.” I reply. I didn’t know much about her, but for a young kid she was on the ball.
*Your real family?” She asks curiously
“My only family. Dane is my brother by blood, but we are not a family, not really, we barely know each other. He has chosen his family.”
Her brow wrinkles up and she chews on her bottom lip. “I miss my other Daddy. I’m sad.” She shrugs her shoulders, “I know he is doing a job and that is important.”
When she realises I’m not eating the muffin, she looks over her shoulder as she pulls it back towards her. Carefully pulling off the wrapper she takes a bite. “Maybe you just have to find a way to help. That’s what Daddy has always told me.”
“I don’t know how I can help other than what I have told them.”
*Maybe when the foggy brain is better.” She gazes at me. “Maybe then you won’t be sad. Maybe then you can help.” She grins and little dimples appear in her cheeks
‘Foggy brain?’ Lyall mutters, There is nothing wrong with our brain.”
Music blares out and Dorothy jumps to her feet, abandoning the half eaten muffin. “My favourite song.” She disappears through to the lounge and dances with Samara as Damien takes her place.
“You kid is weird.” I mutter
“I know, but I wouldn’t have her any other way. What did she say to you?”
“You weren’t listening?” I was surprised, though I would never hurt a child.
“I wasn’t paying attention.”
*She accused me of having a foggy brain.”
“Interesting description.” He muses and casts a glance over his shoulder to look at Samara and Dorothy giggling. “Is she always so…”
He faces me, his expression becoming unreadable. “I suggest you think before you mutter the next word.”
“I didn’t mean…. I just… Has she always been intuitive?”
“Yes.”
*Are all the kids here like that?”
*No. Dottie is different. And that is all you need to concem yourself with.”
I frown, “Quinn is much younger than her, and being around Dorothy makes me miss him even more to the point it hurts. I hope Brax finds them. I hope they are alive. I need to be with them.”
He studies me, “You still don’t believe what we are telling you, do you?” He scowls, “I think Dottie is right, you do have a clouded mind. I think that the possibility sounds so insane to you that you just cannot see it for what it is. Nothing is insane any more, Silas. Just when you think you have a grip on reality, something else throws a spanner in the works. Trust me, I have seen a lot since I was turned.”
*Brax will bring…”
*Brax will kill Thalia the moment he gets a chance.” He tells me. “He won’t save her for the sake of keeping you happy. He will kill her to save all the people living here and possibly those that are living there. What are you going to do? Go to war with an entire pack or accept that this is reality?”
“My son.”
“You don’t have a son.”
I lean around Damien. Dorothy is standing on her tiptoes, chewing on her bottom lip. Her bright green eyes hovering on me as her fingers wrap themselves up in each other.
“You don’t have a son.” She repeats
*Dottie you can’t say things like that.”
“But it’s true.” Her eyes don’t leave mine. “I see him.” She points at me
Clearly I had given her more credit than what was required. Possibly, she was a little nuts.
“Darkness?” Damien asks her an edge of concern to his tone.
She shakes her head. “Just sadness and it’s all empty.”
“I can’t listen to this!” I snap, getting to my feet.
Dorothy grabs my wrist. “Look for the light!”
Pulling my arm free, I leave the house, slamming the door behind me and step out into the evening sun.
‘I don’t understand her,’ Lyall mutters, ‘Is she some kind of Witch?
‘She’s Brax’s kid, so I’m assuming a Hunter, but she is young, she doesn’t even have her Wolf yet. How can she say we don’t have a son? I’ve already lost one, I can’t lose another.”
Thear the door of the house open and close. Light steps make their way towards me as I turn my face to the sky. *Are you okay?” Samara asks quietly
I turn to look at her. A fresh mark sat on her neck, one that had already healed. She casually presses a hand to it and smiles, “He marked me earlier when you were out of the house.”
“Thalia’s sits a little lower on her collarbone.” I murmur. The funny thing is, I don’t actually remember giving it to he., “Are you happy?”
“I couldn’t be any happier.” She steps in front of me, “Dorothy confused me at first. She sees things in a different light to others, but she is a good kid. What may seem obvious to you, may not to her and vice versa. She doesn’t always know when she should keep things to herself. She sees things on a deeper level. I mean, I don’t even know what she fully sees, maybe souls like Brax, maybe more. What I do know is, she has never been wrong.”
*She is just a kid that has no filter.” She adds with a smile.
*She is saying that my son isn’t real!”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
*I paraded my boys around White Cliffs the day they were born. Showing them off like the proud father I became. Finally, I had people that were related to me by blood, the family that I had been so desperate to have.” I sigh,” After Jarret, I spent so much time with Quinn and now I’m expected to act like none of that is real, that it is what, a lie? What was I carrying around, a sack of spuds? What would you do if they told you that your children were just in your head?”
“I probably wouldn’t believe it either.”
*Damien tried to convince me that Thalia killed Jarret and that made absolutely no sense to me. She is their mother. How am I expected to believe that my sons were never here in the first place? Three years I have been raising Quinn. It sounds…”
“You feel like you are losing the plot, right?”
I nod. I was more than confused. There was no evidence and it was starting to sound like I had fallen into a trap. Maybe they were trying to get information from me. But then why bother bringing me here, to the pack I was born in?
Then there is Dorothy, surely they wouldn’t use her for something so low? I don’t think they would, I see how much Damien and Samara care for her. I’ve seen the other children go to a makeshift school.
And then there were the gaps in my mind. The lack of memories surrounding me marking Thalia. Heat, the twins birth.
I think if it was a trap, they would have tried to kill us by now.” Lyall tells me. I didn’t want to admit it, but everything they were saying was just….
*She knew Cooper, right?” A woman with her hands in her pockets steps out from behind a tree on the outskirts of the forest. She looked similar to Neah except the short dark hair and brown eyes. “Your mate knew him?”
*Silas, this is Blair.” Samara sighs. “Eavesdropping?” She tuts and her arms quickly fold up over her chest.
*If you must know, Ryken told me to wait here. You and your big mouth make it hard for me not to listen.” She sticks her hand out to shake mine “Blair, Neah’s half sister.”
*Really? You are calling yourself her half sister now. She doesn’t even talk to you unless it’s to put you in your place!” Samara glares at her.
*Ladies, calm down! I don’t need to be caught up in this, I have more important things on my mind.”
Blair groans, “Regardless of this cow. You might want to consider that not everything is what it seems.”
“You were one of the prisoners who got away?” Damien had mentioned it to me but until now, I hadn’t met her.
“That’s the thing. I didn’t get away, I was let out and then she took me in under false pretences.” She jabs a finger in Samara’s direction
*Yes, and I held my hands up to that. I was lied to as well you know, tricked into believing it was my duty!” Samara snaps back at her. She turns to me. “I have apologised over and over, but she refuses to accept it. No matter what I do, she paints me as this villain. But she forgets all the stuff she did such as the time she caused havoc and tried to claim Neah’s position for herself.
“She doesn’t even seem to remember that Cooper screwed me over as well as so many others. Or that I was the one who ripped off his head. Something she can’t even deny because she was in the forest at the time! That’s right! I saw you!”
I don’t think I have ever seen a more hateful look than the one Blair is giving Samara. Her eyes narrow to slits as she clenches her jaw. Her cheeks pulsate as her lip curls up, showing her gritted teeth.
“I think both of you need to go. I just need some time to think.”
*Sure, you know where I am if you want to talk.” Samara tells me. She turns and heads in the opposite direction as Blair stares at me.
*And you. Go.”
“You think you can make the decision for me. You are not an Alpha. You are not in this pack.”
‘This one has a right attitude problem. Maybe it was a good thing she wasn’t taken in at White Cliffs, something tells me that she would already be dead.’ Lyall muses
“I never said I was.” I stare back at her.
